This is a really good beginning or even a stand alone. A whole new magic world, just getting to its industrial age. The magic is based on gifts given a birth by random people. And your fortune can be foretold or boosted by visits to the temples for more gifts throughout life, just reach in and pu...
Book 5 of 5 of "The Twelve Houses", If you liked the first 4, you'll like this. The author kept you guessing on who the villain was in this book. I enjoyed it.
It was obvious from the beginning that Josetta and Rafe were going to be a couple. The way it worked out was interesting, though. He really did feel motivated to become something other than a fairly transient gambler. It's not that she felt he wasn't good enough for her, but that he felt he neede...
I was largely disappointed by these stories - three of the four are ho-hum Here's Your Moral Lesson sledgehammers with zero chemistry between the romantic leads (where applicable - Flame wasn't a romance). In Flight, the romance seemed to occur in order to give Salome a ride at the end, and Gold...
HERE'S THE THING. I love Sharon Shinn. I've read every single book she's ever written, and there really aren't that many authors I can say that about. I love her brand of fantasy/sci fi, I love the characters she creates and writes about, I love the way she tells stories. AND HERE'S THE THING ABO...
Ten years old is pretty young to know you are the only thing standing between your sister and disaster, yet Melanie Landon knows. Melanie has lived every day since with the fear that Ann will not make it home and be hurt or killed like any other stray dog. Now that fear has, in a sense, become a ...
This novel was written much later but follows-on about 2 years after the events of Archangel - even though this is technically the fifth book, it works superbly as a stand-alone novel, and reads as if it were #2.The angels and people of Samaria are picking up the pieces after the god destroyed Mo...
This is Shinn's first novel, and a beautifully crafted one at that. The story is simple and simply told, which makes it that much more forceful: a young apprentice magician, Aubrey, is sent to a new tutor, the famous shape-changer Glyrendon, to learn transmogrification. Gifted and with great prom...
This is a mixed review, and I don't know what number of stars to give this book. Normally, I just wouldn't review it in those circumstances, but this time, the issue is too important for me not to talk about it in public.So.This is a beautifully written book, with wonderful characters, in a serie...
And so it came to pass... Through science, faith and force of will, the Harmonics carved out for themselves a society that they conceived of as perfect. Diverse peoples held together by respect for each other and the prospect of swift punishment if they disobeyed their laws. Fertile land that e...
Two hundred years ago, the god Jovah created a legion of land dwelling angels, led by an appointed Archangel. Now, Jovah has a new appointee: Archangel Gaaron. For his life-mate, his Angelica, Jovah has chosen a woman named Susannah. Slowly, an unspoken affection develops between the two. But ...
Originally reviewed here.I discovered Sharon Shinn through the fabulous Archangel--the first book in her Samaria series. I was instantly smitten and plowed my way through that series quick like a bunny. I'm pretty sure I picked up SUMMERS AT CASTLE AUBURN while waiting for the fifth Samaria book ...
In this novel of secret sorceries and forbidden desires, the mystic Cammon must put aside his personal feelings for Princess Amalie while he reads the souls of her suitors for any potential threats. But Cammon is unable to read Amalie, and he begins to suspect that she herself possesses magic pow...
Originally posted here.Dark Moon Defender is the third book in the Twelve Houses series by Sharon Shinn. Reading order: Mystic and Rider, The Thirteenth House, Dark Moon Defender, Reader and Raelynx, Fortune and Fate. Should the books be read in order? Yes. Also, don't read any of the synopses of...
The Thirteenth House is the second book in the Twelve Houses series following the excellent Mystic and Rider.Halchon Gisseltess, Marlord of one of the twelve houses, is fomenting rebellion in the south having pretty much admitted to Senneth that he wants to be king and, oh by the way, he wants to...
From the ages of six through thirteen, I dreaded Back-to-School Night. Every year, my parents would meet the new teacher I had been assigned that fall and every year, that teacher would repeat the same phrase: "...an advanced and voracious reader, but fails to read diversely." Following those mee...
THE DREAM-MAKER'S MAGIC is the third book in Sharon Shinn's Safe-Keepers trilogy. This trilogy is YA fantasy set in an unnamed kingdom in which, along with your average, run-of-the-mill people, there are also three sorts of quite special folk. The safe-keepers, the truth-tellers, and the dream-ma...
I'm going to give this book a solid B. The characters are reasonably likable. The premise is interesting: mirror twin girls, one destined to always tell the truth, the other destined to always keep secrets. And, the plot threads for the most part tie up neatly (if a tad predictably) at the end. H...
When the reigning Archangel is grounded with a broken wing, Jovah chooses her successor: Alleluia, a solitary scholar of undistinguished lineage. Now the fate of the planet rests with the reluctant Archangel Alleluia, who believes in her duty and her god. And her fate, in turn, may well depend on...
She thought she might stay within its walls for a quintile and never visit all its music rooms, libraries, studies, and dining areas—there was even a greenhouse so humid and warm that she thought it would be her favorite spot on cold Quinnelay afternoons. Now, of course, the weather was hot and n...
Something flavorful, maybe sausages. She was starving. She opened her eyes and immediately lost her appetite. She was on the low mattress in the small room in the white stone building where she had arrived the previous night. If she was still dreaming, it was the longest and most detailed dream s...
If he had not promised, he would not have gone. The lure of possible bedmates—lifemates? whatever—had not been strong enough to make him anticipate the trip. But it served one good purpose: It had been his deadline. After the wedding, he had decided, he would go to Ysral. For that reason alone di...
All morning, I have the sense that I’ve fallen behind, so I keep myself sequestered in my office, focused on the computer. A knock on the door frame makes me practically jump out of my chair. “I’m so sorry,” Kathleen says remorsefully. “I didn’t mean to s...
There’s a little coolness between Bonnie and Celeste after the argument about Ryan, and I can tell Celeste is thinking it’s time for her to return to her own apartment or at least find another place to recuperate. I wonder if I should bring her back to my property for a few days. Surely between t...
Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. JENNA STARBORN An Ace Book / published by arrangemen...